In this series, I compiled a list of writers active between 0-35CE between Jerusalem and the Roman Empire. Then, I checked out how many of them mention anything about Jesus, his followers, his disciples, or his actions. Every Friday for a while, I tackled one (or more) writers and graded their applicability. I also tackled the usual non-contemporaneous writers Christians mistakenly consider real contemporaries, like Josephus and Pliny.
Spoiler alert: Literally nobody in those critical years mentions a word about Jesus or his actions. Even when he did something described in the Gospels as absolutely huge and unmistakably supernatural, not a single writer mentions it. Even writers whose business involved communicating with governments didn’t mention it.
Weird, huh? But as usual, it’s not the Bible’s lack of historicity. It’s what so many Christians do about it.
Hi, y’all! Welcome back. It being Friday again, let us turn our attention to another 1st-century writer. This time, our subject is Marcus Velleius Paterculus (19 BCE – 31 CE). This Roman historian lived through the wildest years of the early Roman Empire. Thus, he wrote during those critical years Read more
Hi and welcome back! For today’s 1st-Century Friday, we have a treat in store: Philo of Alexandria, also called Philo Judaeus. He lived smack in the middle of that critically-important period we’ve identified as the 30s, roughly. Not only that, but he was also Jewish and highly-placed in court circles. Read more
Today, we’ll see what Livy wrote — or rather, didn’t — about the wild-eyed rock star apocalypse-huckster supposedly stirring things up in Jerusalem.
Today, let’s check out this fascinating rival for 1st-century affections — and check out what we can of his writings.
We’re about to start a new topic that I expect to last a while: 1st-century writers. First, though, let me show you why this topic is so important to me. See, these 1st-century writers’ utter silence about one particular subject rattled my faith in Christianity in a way that I would never recover.